Bumblebee Cookies for St. Ambrose

This post was written by Catholic Cuisine contributor, Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda. 


Our tradition for December 7th means that my kitchen is a buzzin', with cookies that is. These were made last year but I am sure this year's hive will look pretty much the same.

To celebrate the patron saint of beekeepers we keep these bees in our tummies! Use your favorite peanut butter cookie dough (or any cookie dough, I imagine), some pretzel twists and sticks and melted chocolate for the stripes. We rolled the dough into balls and flattened them on top of the mini pretzel twist wings then added the antenna and baked them for about 10 minutes. Once they cool, you can pipe the stripes on using a fancy piping bag or just snip off the corner of a ziploc baggie. These are so easy and the kids have a blast making and eating them!

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Meal ideas for the Feast of The Immaculate Conception

Here are a few ideas for an all white menu symbolizing the purity and the stainlessness of Mary's immaculate soul.

Breakfast: hash brown potatoes, Egg white omelet, white toast or English muffins, Cottage cheese

Snack time: White Cheez-Its, mozzarella cheese cubes, white grapes, macadamia nuts

Main Course: White rice, chicken breast with Alfredo sauce, tilapia, halibut, New England clam chowder, white pizza

Side dishes: Potato salad, Macaroni salad

Dessert: Rice pudding, Baked Pears with Custard Sauce, White Chocolate and Almond Pound Cake

Drinks: White grape juice, white tea, milk, white wine

May you all have a most blessed feast day with your families.
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Sweet Beehive Cake for St. Ambrose

As Mary mentioned, St. Ambrose, whose feast day is December 7th, is often depicted with a beehive or bees.

Earlier this year, when I ran across the Crown Cake in a Family Fun Magazine, I also noticed this adorable Beehive Cake and thought it would be perfect for the feast of St. Ambrose. I'm am not sure if I am going to have a chance to make it myself, but I thought I would share the recipe with you all just the same.

Sweet Beehive Cake

from Family Fun Magazine

Ingredients:

• 8-inch round cake
• 6-inch round cake
• Half-sphere cake baked in a 2-cup ovenproof bowl
• 3 1/2 cups yellow frosting
• 13 round cookies (we used Keebler Sandies Pecan Shortbread
• 1 1/2 cups light-blue frosting
• 12 Twix Minis
• 12 marshmallows
• Chocolate frosting
• Large yellow gumdrop

Directions:

1. Use a long serrated knife to trim the tops of the round cakes flat, if needed. To get the smooth look of our cake, first stack the three cakes on a wire rack over a cookie sheet. Heat 3 cups of the yellow frosting in the microwave until it liquefies, about 20 seconds. Stir the frosting, then slowly pour it over the top of the cakes, as shown, covering them completely. Refriger­ate the stack for about 30 minutes to harden the frosting.

2. Meanwhile, frost 12 of the cookies light blue and place a Twix in the center of each. Use scissors to cut the ends from the marshmallows and press on these ends, sticky side down, for wings.

3. Carefully transfer the cake to a platter. To add a door, trim one edge of the remaining cookie, as shown, cover both sides with chocolate frosting, then press it onto the hive. Spoon the rest of the yellow frosting into a resealable sandwich bag, snip off a corner, and pipe markings onto the bees and hive. Top the hive with the gumdrop and arrange the bees around it. Serves 12.

St. Ambrose ~ Pray for us!

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Christmas Honey Cookies for the Honey-Tongued Saint

This Advent the feast of St. Ambrose falls on a Sunday (December 7) so is not celebrated in the liturgical calendar, but he is a great saint worth some focus this coming week. St. Ambrose is often called the "Honey-Tongued Doctor," for his preaching was said to be as sweet as flowing honey. There is a legend which says that when Ambrose was a baby, a swarm of bees settled on his mouth, indicating that he would be a great orator. The word for honey in Latin is ambrosia, a pun on his name. Of his many patronages he is the patron of bee keepers, bees, and candlemakers. He is often depicted with a beehive or bees in his iconography, symbols which also indicate wisdom.

In looking around there are a variety of honey based cookies that are made during the Christmas season around the world.

Melomakarona are a traditional Greek cookie served at Christmas. These spice cookies are made with cinnamon and cloves, are soaked in a honey syrup, and sprinkled with sesame seeds, walnuts, and cinnamon.

Crispelles, the fried rosette cookies dipped in honey, are a standard Italian fare at Christmas.

Medianyky are Ukranian Christmas honey cookies.

Germany's soft ginger honey cakes lebkuchen (or pfefferkuchen) are possibly the first cookies/cake traditionally associated with Christmas. According to Christmas Cookie Traditions around the World: "Long before there was sugar, monks in the monastery kitchens near Nürnberg, Germany baked Lebkuchen cookies from honey that was brought to them by beekeepers in the nearby forest. Today, Nürnberger Lebkuchen (honey cookies) are still made around the holidays."

Polish Thumbprint Cookies literally have a thumbprint in the middle that is filled with apricot or other jam/preserves. These honey and almond Christmas cookies capture the usual flavor of this region.

And while not necessarily traditional holiday fare, the National Honey Board has lots of dessert recipes that would fit the bill for a honey sweetened treat this season.

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From Thy Bounty Fair, St. Nicholas

Several years ago I had a husband who was newly received into the Catholic Church when I felt called upon to make our Advent as holy as possible. I wanted to immerse my young family in our beautiful Catholic culture and at the same time not overwhelm myself. Toward that end I focused that first Advent on a few feast days that I felt I could easily handle and in doing so began a loving relationship with Saint Nicholas. I read about this Saint and fell in love with his protective charity and willingness to sacrifice all for his faith.

The simple tradition of leaving out shoes and filling them with small gifts appealed to both my overworked mommy syndrome and underfunded bank account. I was also anxious to separate our Advent observance from the whole "Santa Claus" madness that can overwhelm small children so easily. In Saint Nicholas we have the example of a penitential Advent that truly prepares us for the arrival of our Redeemer.

This year, in my home, we are experiencing sacrifice and penance daily. I am toward the end of a difficult pregnancy and we are living, quite literally, in a construction site. All of our possessions except those that are absolutely necessary for survival are packed up and in storage lockers all over town. This includes all of our Christmas decorations, Advent wreath and calendar. We won't be baking or crafting and even our Christmas books are, with few exceptions, stored somewhere.
So I wanted to host this fair in order to live vicariously through those families who have more beauty and less austerity this Advent season. I want to see pictures and read of traditions that I can share with my children and ask them to remember for next year. Next year when we have a nicer home and new baby to share our joy.

So lets get to the fun stuff. I encourage everyone to visit the O Night Divine Celebrate with Saints page to see all of the posts, mostly written by the lovely and talented Jennifer Miller, about Saint Nicholas. There you will find everything you need to know both about the Bishop of Myra and how to honor him on his big day.

Then you must visit Elena and let her show you the cute way she begins the feast day for her children. I love breakfast celebrations!

And while we are talking about food; lets go visit Eileen whose first attempt at some traditional St. Nicholas day baking looks delicious. There is a sweet little face in those pictures that is pretty delicious as well.

How about a cookie recipe from cookbook author Amy Heyd? St. Nicholas purse cookies are a perfect accompaniment to the day.

Jessica does the whole thing up right, books, food, drinks and fun. Also a crafty food giftie to bestow on friends.

More deliciousness can be found at Erin's blog, Growing with my Girls, both the sweet little girls and the pretty cookies are worth the trip.

Over at Island in the Grove, Donna's celebration focuses on the tradition of leaving out shoes for St. Nicholas to fill with treats. I love Donna's Advent garden and her handmade St. Nicholas and horse figures. It looks like she created a beautiful heirloom to make her family's celebration even more meaningful.

Mary has a sweet candy cane craft that your children will love. Mary also made some shortbread cookies decorated with a stamp and petal dust. Petal dust? Have to get me some of that.

Barbara's Speculatius Cookies took her children's German teacher back in time to her childhood. To my mind that's the ultimate food compliment. I kind of covet the tea towel in the picture as well!

Marjorie shares a wonderful post filled with ideas and recipes focused on St. Nicholas' native Turkey.

Any observance of St. Nicholas Day has to include a trip Jennifer Miller's blog. Jennifer has been writing about St. Nicholas for fifteen years and is widely considered the go-to resource for all things Nicholas. The post I highlighted lists some of her best articles and I want you to try to make time to peruse them.

Now if all of that did not give you enough to think about or you are feeling it's too late to pull anything off go visit the amazing website Saint Nicholas Center. There you will find stories to read and coloring pages to print and simple crafts to create. You must, while there, visit the spoon saint page created by my dear friend Alice.

I hope that everyone has enjoyed this fair as much as I have. I also hope that whatever you chose to do to honor Saint Nicholas that the day brings happiness wonderful memories to your family.

Saint Nicholas, pray for us. Pin It

Xaver Suppe (Soup for St. Francis Xavier's Day)

Last year, for the feast of St. Francis Xavier, I made Xaver Suppe . It was very easy to make, and I was pleasantly surprised that all my children loved it! I am planning on making it for dinner again tonight.

Xaver Suppe

(Recipe found in Cooking With the Saints)

This is a delicious clear soup with "dumplings" that is easy to make and can serve a crowd.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, white
• pinch of nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 Tablespoon parsley, chopped (for dough)
• 12 cups chicken stock
• 2 Tablespoon chervil, chopped
• 2 Tablespoon parsley, chopped (for soup)

DIRECTIONS:

Over low heat work the flour, cream, butter and Parmesan cheese to a solid dough. Work in the salt, pepper, nutmeg, eggs and egg yolks and parsley. Put the mixture into a piping bag with a big nozzle and pipe pea-sized balls onto a buttered tray. Let stand for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime heat some salted water until it boils, then drop in all the "dough peas". Cook for 5 minutes, then remove them with a slotted spoon and add to the warm chicken stock. Season soup to taste and add the chervil and 2 tablespoons parsley.

Serves 10 to 12 people.

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St Francis Xavier - December 3

In honor of St. Francis Xavier, another of the Basque saints, I'm including another traditional Basque chicken recipe. I really would like to add one of the seafood or lamb dishes at some point but am sticking with meats people are more likely to have on hand.

Polla a la Vasca (Basque Chicken with Pimiento)

Sauce
1/4 olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 c. little strips of ham
1/4 t. salt
1/4 c. chicken broth or white wine
1 4 oz. jar pimientos, chopped (could use red peppers, sauteed - in a pinch)
1/4 c, finely chopped parsley

Heat oil slightly. Add onion and garlic. Cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce, salt, and chicken broth or wine. Stir well and cover. Simmer sauce for about 20 minutes. Add pimiento, ham, and parsley. Keep warm and pour sauce over chicken after it has been browned.

Chicken
3 fryer, cut up
1 glove garlic, bruised
1/4 olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Heat oil and garlic in large frying pan or dutch oven until garlic becomes golden. Discard garlic and fry chicken until it is light golden brown. Add sauce and continue cooking until tender.

Since St. Francis is the patron of foriegn missions and one of the Church's most illustrious missionaries having traveled to and labored in western India, the island of Ceylon, Malacca, Molucca Islands, Island of Mindanao (Philippines), and Japan, another option for dinner on this feast day would be tempura. Tempura is generally regarded as having been introduced to the Japanese culture by the missionaries from the Iberian penninsula (Portuguese most likely) - and being as St. Francis was the most famous missionary to the orient this would be fitting. Pin It